It's Our Naval base
by syaondri
Summary: Meet Inazuma and the newly recuirted Makigumo on their adventure through the seemingly endless fight against Abyssal Fleet, PVP Battles and daily life.
1. Sortieing Out

"You should be fine, come on, just do what you've learned so far."

"U-unghhh… I… I don't know… this is the first time I'm doing it for real…"

"You're pretty good at the basic you know, just follow my lead and everything should be just fine ok? Now dip in slowly…"

"U-unghhhh… kay… B-but what if it happened again…"

"Don't worry, I'll carefully watches every steps that you make and corrects you when necessary ok?"

"O-ok… s-slowly… a-aahhh"

"A-ah, wait…" –splash-

…

It was a cloudy day when a new Makigumo joins our fleet. She seems rather inexperienced at first, and I didn't really expected her to excel at handling the submarine warfare equipments on the training pool but well, she actually did. Still though, she's still too far from ready to be engaged with the Abyssal Fleet for now. Knowing so, the admiral told me to give a simple tour with Makigumo around the scanned sea nearby our base.

"Ok you're steady now… I'll release my hand as you try to stabilize yourself ok?"

"O-ok instructor…"

With that, I slowly lets her hands which is covered by her sleeves slowly. I keep my glare at her eyes as I smile to ensure her that everything is going to be fine, and by the time I completely let her hands go, she's already standing tall on the sea's surface.

"Yes! That's a good one, oh and by the way, you could just call me by name you know."

"Instructor Inazuma?"

"U-uhh… yea.. you could also leave the 'instructor' actually"

"U-uhhngggh.." Makigumo could only shook her head to that so I decided to just let it slip and pats her head.

"Alright then, let's just get started." I say before I start my engine and leads her to a nearby island.

The mission starts pretty early in the morning. The sun had just rise several minutes ago and the sky is still painted in dimmed blue with some of it still being covered by the clouds from yesterday. The two of us traverse the sea, leaving white trails on it as we cover some of the naval's basic movement practice which looks as if we're painting a sort of mural in the vast blue sea. Slowly, I managed to gain Makigumo's self esteem which shown up by a stretched smile on her previously gloomy face. But suddenly…

"ah, huh?" I can feel a fairy nudging my neck for a bit while, then I realized that it is the Compass Fairy… she fixes her magician-like hat as she jumps to my ear and carefully whispers some words "I uh.. but we're not that far from the naval base…"the fairy insisted me to look at the Compass and surprisingly indeed, it looks like there's a change of Z Particle waves right ahead, so I let the compass fairy does it job by putting her above the compass which I put on my palm.

"E-eh wh-why are we stopping..?"

"The node shift is happening."

"N-node shift?"

"A-ah yes, you've just been transferred here right, yea well, I didn't expected it to happens here

but well… to begin with, you knew that the reason why we could stay afloat like this without a proper ship-like hull is because of the Z Particle Waves right?"

"A-ahah.." Makigumo nods in confusion.

"Basically this particle wave is what keeps us shipgirls afloat in the sea and these compass fairy which was entrusted to the flagship is the one who could tell when and where the wave streams goes to… no one particularly knew how this waves works yet, but it is said that the Abyssal Fleets are also using this to stay afloat and is able to manipulates its route. So where there's a Node Shift, there usually is an Abyssal Fleets." I keep my focus at the compass which is still rotating and the fairy above it whom looks kind of worried, she bits her right hand as she sees the rotating compass hand.

"E-eeehh!? So, we're going to face an enemy already?"

"Note that I did said usually."

"B-but then there's a chance right?"

"I doubt that there'll be an abyssal fleet girl here today though, Hiei usually ran a patrol here and if you looked at her back at the naval base, she's pretty much all shining. I bet she had took all available abyssal here."

"I-I see…"

"and if anything happens you have me…" as I tried to looked back, I could see a shocked face of

Makigumo as she points somewhere…

"H-Ha Class!" I said and at almost the same time, the compass stopped spinning and is pointing directly to where the small dots, which revealed to be an enemy, came from.

"N-no that's not the main problem, look above…"

"O-oh dear…. Uh, Makigumo, remember when I said that there's still much mysteries as to how the Z Particle Wave's route work?" Makigumo nods with a nervous hums, "well, one of the mystery is that sometimes natural phenomenon like tidal waves; whirlpool and such could also affect the route…"

"I… I see… uhh… then… shall we run?"

"Indeed, we shall." With that, the two of us, followed by the Ha class, make a full speed advance to anywhere but toward the gathering tornado behind us.


	2. The War, The Tide and A Heart

"I-instructor!" without I realizes it, we're already outside of the stream and slowly but sure the waterline starts to rise above our foot.

"Compas Fairy!" the fairy with the magician hat from before reappear on my shoulder, at first she looks panicked when she saw us drowning, she then quickly swing her magical rod and…

"U-uh… instructor… I feel… sick…"

"Don't worry." I say as I turn my head toward her… she looks surprised, probably because oil starts flooding my mouth out "Just let it go."

"U-ungh..*burp*" Makigumo closes her mouth not to let me see her face which is most probably covered in oil by now.

"We could alter the course of the particle with this… though just a bit, this should be enough to get away from that tornado." I say as I wipe the oils on my face, "now to get a cover… ah over there!" luckily indeed the island we were heading to had a cave on its shore. We decided to hurry ourselves there… but then…

"Help…"

"please, I don't wanted to sink here…"

"Heh, I like your spirit there! No wonder you're based on the same ship class as mine Ahaha!" Wh…why…

"Anyway, I think I could feel less nervous if you really are that eager to save everyone." Why did I suddenly remembering this now…

"Instructor! Instructor! Hurry!" it seems that Makigumo had reached the cave when my mind suddenly remembered something… but, what was that voice… is it just me or… a-anyway, I'd better get to the cave quickly.

"Makigumo, did you hear any sounds?"

"Umnn… I don't think I heard anything though…"

"Could it be…" I've managed to get inside the cave when I hear…

"Haaaaaaa…." A shriek… a monstrously shriek that I knew, it came from the Ha-class we saw earlier.

"I-instructor…" Makigumo sounds scarred when she said that, she even held tight my rigging with her hands.

What spreads in front of us is a pretty awful scenery of the sea. A single destroyer class from an Abyssal Fleet held his ground against a forming storm behind it. Makigumo and I had knew the result though, the Ha-class had started to get lifted by the storm, he's starting to shriek again and again, trying to reach someone to no avail. Slowly I could hear a sniffle…

"I-instructor…" Makigumo's eyes were teary, "th… they were the enemy right? Th.. they were bad guys right?" at that word I was left speechless, it feels as if someone knew you ate their pudding that they'd save for today's afternoon tea break, "The guys at the naval told me so, so… this… we.. should be happy with this, y-yes?" Makigumo asked again before I could even answer any of her question.

"Makigumo, get to the deepest sanctum now."

"I-intsructor?" Makigumo's teary eyes glanced at my face which is looking straight toward the Ha-class.

"Now." I repeat my order. I had to keep my cool so I didn't see her as I said that, trying not to let her see my tears, though I don't know whether she could see the droplets that fell from my chin...

"Y-yes ma'am!" the little destroyer moves deeper into the cave while I stand closer to the cave's exit. My clothes are wiggling all over, my anchor makes a noisy chimes as it hits the cave's wall, while my hearts pounds heavily… 'am I doing the right thing? Hey… '

After a second thought, I finally cast away my anchor and threw the towing net as far as I could, luckily, it flew toward the abyssal destroyer. He looks hesitating at first but he then bit the cable. Right after that, I pulled the tow cable as hard as I could…. All but to no avail. The tornado had started to take its form and is closing in on us, that and the Ha-Class itself being so heavy is enough to drags me into them instead.

"Turbine, is it not on!?" a fairy that resembles me pops up from my shoes and shook her head with a gloomy face, ah… I forgot, I only bring some sonar and two main battery right now... if only…

"Instructor!" Suddenly I can feel someone pulled my rigging, it's Makigumo.

"What are you doing!? Hurry up and get to the inner sanctum now!"

"No, instructor alone is not going to make it! The tornado is too close we have to do this together if we're going to do it!" all of a sudden I can feel a different vibe from this girl, it's as if she's not the same destroyer I escorted just now.

"Very well then… you may proceed what you're doing." My words were greeted with a proudly released hums from Makigumo.

With both of our energy combined, we managed to pull the Ha-Class toward us slowly. It didn't took long before we managed to get it inside the cave… "Hurry to the inner sanctum!" I command, but even before I said that, everyone had already went running deeper inside the cave…

It took about one or two minutes until the tornado passed over us…

"I thought I was about to die…" Makigumo's eyes were teary as she said it, her legs are all trembling and his hand starts to wipe the tears flowing over from her eyes.

"Well, that sure is close."

"Haaa.. haaa!"

Wait..

Suddenly Makigumo went to an offensive position, she summoned her weaponry and aims it at the Ha-Class, using my reflex, I patted the 12.7cm battery Makigumo was holding, our movement does startled the Ha-Class that he took a leap back and opens its mouth. Seeing that, I move in front of Makigumo and braced for any impact…. But nothing happened, the Ha-class decided to close its mouth and make a strange gesture of up and down as if trying to bow toward me on that body. It then floats toward the exit of the cave and disappear…

* * *

*and now a little addition story*

"I-instructor?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you let it go?"

*insert Frozen joke here*

* * *

"Instructor, you were very cool back there."

"Nah, I won't be able to do anything if it wasn't because of you."

"I-instructor.. that's too much…"

"No really, you're very cool Makigumo." Inazuma said, she then held tight Makigumo's hand and say, "you're my savior…"

"Instructor…"

"Makigu

"STOOP! That's not what happened! ghuuuuu!"

"Instructor's right! We were fighting for our live back then! Please don't make fun of it Senior Yuubari!"


	3. The Reunion

"Inazuma! Oh thank god you're fine!"

"A-ah commander, uh, we're home." this guy is my commander, or yea the admiral of this base, his name is Shirogane. He's pretty young for an admiral, he had just got 30 this year and is single, though he doesn't really likes to talk about that part. Shortly described, our admiral has a pretty much ordinary look, not too much muscle but not weak looking, not too handsome but not ugly either. His hair is black and is rather wavy.

"Admiral there you are." While this Kirishima is the battleship who'd usually does the base's secretary and also the flagship of our main fleet, "I know you're worried about Inazuma, but Admiral Hayabusa would like to talk to you now."

"What, admiral Hayabusa's here?"

"Yea he had just got here."

"Ah! Admira Hayabusa!?" I said happily.

"Yes, they're with him" hearing what Kirishima said, I quickly run toward the base's barrack followed by Makigumo.

"Come, Makigumo!" I say as I made my rigging vanishes into thin air before I continue my leap toward the barrack.

"Ah instructor, wait…"

Makigumo follows me toward the barrack. The hall inside the barrack looks pretty much empty today; probably due to the first fleet who had just gone sortieing.

"It has been a while since I've met my seniors from United Fleets."

"United Fleets?"

"Ah yes, basically, they are human's fleet especially created to fend off the Abyssal Fleet." I say as I open my room.

"An elite one at that." when I fully opened the door, I could see senior Miyuki who sit on my desk which is right in front of the window while senior Shirayuki sits on my bed which is right across my bookshelf. The lightings usually came from the window in this kind of time, but senior Miyuki had all of the sun's light absorbed by her back that my room becomes pretty dim.

"Senior Miyuki!"

"Heh, been good Inazuma?" this girl is Miyuki, one of my senior back in the United Fleet.

"Long time no see." While this one's senior Shirayuki.

"Senior Shirayki!" quickly I jumped toward Shirayuki, since I knew senior Miyuki wouldn't want that.

Shirayuki received my hug while Miyuki seems to cringes in terror, "Looks like you've got a disciple of your own now?" Shirayuki asked as she swept my hair with her right hand.

"Yes, that's Makigumo, she had just been assigned to this base and I was entrusted to teach her the basic."

"Hoo, no wonder.." Miyuki stands up from her seats and walks toward the terrified Makigumo, "Hehe.. she looks like you."

"Eehh… unngghh, seniors haven't saw her in action!"I release myself from Shirayuki's hug.

"Well that makes her more likes you then." Miyuki replied

"Hawawa…" I fell myself to the floor at that word.

"C-can I know," Makigumo suddenly says, "can I know what part of instructor that looks like mine?"

"Hmmnn~ first one," Miyuki pats Makigumo's head, "your daily attitude, you two pretty much is klutzy cutezy" she continues as she messed up Makigumo's hair.

"haaa…" makigumo tried to stop Miyuki's hand but to no avail.

"Second," Shirayuki says, "both of you were great soldiers."

"E-ehh?" Makigumo shows a disbelieve.

"I can see a great fighter from their eyes" Miyuki says, with a serious face that both Shirayuki and I almost laughed to that.

"Actually," I cut the chatter, "I have yet seen a good result from this kid. But indeed she's pretty good at the practice pool for the least. I still am unable to fully recognize her as a combat capable ship."

"Well then, we should just conclude it the usual way then!" Miyuki, who is still busy messing up Makigumo's hair, says as she looks toward Shirayuki and me.

"U-usual way?" Makigumo whose hands were still above her head, trying to stop Miyuki's.

"Our Commander gave green-light to that anytime you know." Shirayuki added without answering Makigumo's question.

"I think my Commander would agree too, but let me ask him first ok?" I say as I walk to Makigumo and patted her shoulder.

"Sure" both Miyuki and Shirayuki said almost at the same time. =

"Wait but what's the usual way we're talking!?" Makigumo starts to raise her voice and wobble her both hands up and down.

* * *

*and yet another additional story :D*

"You know, the usual." Miyuki said as she slip down her right hand from Makigumo's head to her neck.

Even from here I could hear Makigumo gulping as she froze in agony, awaits for what the Fubuki class would do to her.

"Don't worry, as this is your first time," Miyuki take several steps so that she's right in front of Makigumo and bump her forehead to Makigumo's, "we'll go easy on you."

Bwoofs. With that, Makigumo turns all red. As her instructor, I had the responsibility to, "Senior, that's too far…" I say as I pulled Miyuki's shoulder, slowly, away from Makigumo.

"Ahaha, hey, Inazuma, this is what you looks like on your first years!"

"S-stop it already."

* * *

"Ah, Admiral Hayabusha." The younger admiral raised a salute to the one with several gray hair sprouting on his almost bald head.

"At ease Shirogane-san." Hayabusha said as he gestures his palm to let Shirogane take a seat across him, "How is she?"

"Ah, she's fine, at least better I'd say."

"Next two month shall mark her first year service here am I correct?"

"Ah yes, indeed it is."

"Well then, I'll go to the real reason of my visit."

"Sure… this is the data, it's all there. I'll update you with the recent data monthly."

"Now you just don't have to worry… you won't be all alone in this admiral."


	4. Practice Makes Perfect

"…and this is for the little sortie I had with Makigumo just now." Inazuma handed over several pieces of paperwork to her admiral.

"Hmnn." Shirogane nods as he swept through pages of the paper, "So, you're going for a practice now?"

"Yes, if it's possible that is." I say.

"Very well, then." Admiral says, as he rose from his sofa, "Admiral Hayabusa do you mind…"

"Ahah, you know how this old man likes it right? Let's get it on right away." The older admiral said as he stood quickly, as though he never ages, before he showed us a warm smile.

With that, the three of us walks outside. There senior Miyuki, Shirayuki, Fubuki and Hatsuyuki together with Kirishima and Makigumo had await our arrival. The six ship raised a salute as the two admiral pass through them before joining the line behind me. Miyuki walks a bit faster than the other to catch up my ear.

"So?" she asked simply. To that question, I raised my right thumb up. Senior Miyuki seems satisfied with that answer.

It didn't took a while before we could see the sea again. Senior Miyuki and senior Shirayuki waves their hands as they get to the pier beside the one Makigumo and I were heading to.

"Let the training begin!" Admiral Hayabusa said on the intercom as he releases a red flare gun shot signing the beginning of the training. To simulate real war condition, the defending team is dispatched earlier than the attacking team.

With that, Miyuki and Shirayuki stepped their throttle to the fullest leaving trails of white thread on the sea's surface. It took about five minutes before the green flare was shot by the admiral, signing that the attacking team's turn to search and hit the defending team.

I lead the fleet of two destroyer, Makigumo and I myself, to the open sea. The node for practice battle usually consist of the water around the naval base and stretches several clicks based on each naval base's geography.

As for this one, it includes the island that we had just gone to this morning and the sea around it with several small island scattered among them. Most of the island was actually a human built fortress used to fend off the Abyssal Fleet and has a lot of huge tower, so those islands is pretty good as cover for the defending team, or at least that's what our fleet usually use when someone challenges us. But that's not the only place to hide, the bigger natural island, the one we went to this morning, itself provide great cover with huge cave and trees, the island is also a good place to hide a small fleet which could withstand shallow cramped waters.

"Makigumo, follow my tail." I give the order out and without a word spoken, Makigumo automatically maneuver right behinds me, though still looks a bit clumsy on doing it, she kind of get the grasp of sailing in the open sea already I suppose.

We then circles our heading toward a tower located most to the east, "Makigumo, the tower ahead of us, circle toward its east. But don't get to the back of the tower yet, you are to turn yourself and moves backward toward it. Then, park right beside the tower. You will only get to the back of the tower when I instructed ok?"

"E-eeh?" Makigumo sounds surprised."

"Don't worry, trust me." Makigumo nods slowly before she leaves my trails as she rotates her rudder to turn her body toward the tower while holding tight her 12.7cm while looking nervous on the face. Meanwhile, I pull my throttle to maximum output, smoke starts piling up from my smokestack and bubbles of water spreads behind me. Right before I reached the "back" of the tower, I took off my anchor and throw it to the leg of the tower as I pull my rudder to turn rightward…

Bwash! Right when I had just performed a copycat move of a certain movie and drifts along the tower, a 12.7 shell flied just right ahead of me. As expected from senior Shirayuki who seems to have seen my smoke and calculated my speed. She stands at a tower pretty far to the west from the one I inspected. As soon as I see her, I return the fire with the gun on my back as I tried to thread backward to deceive Senior's next shot, but that is to no avail, senior Shirayuki saw through my intention and hit my left bulge with her turret. At almost the same time I managed to scratch her right leg. Strange though, why didn't she make any movement though her engine had started?

Grasped the range between us, I contacted Makigumo, "target to the west three clicks and two hundred meters from your location!" The next exchange of shell happens shortly after I reverse the engine on my left and angled my right leg to create a pretty quick 180 turn before I took an aim. Senior Shirayuki thought I was about to release the anchor and blast forward that her shot was a bit further ahead or actually it is behind me now. Meanwhile my shot claims a pretty good damage to Shirayuki's smokestack.

Quickly I turn the engine on both of my legs to move toward Shirayuki before we shot another salvo almost at the same time. Crash! A critical hit from Shirayuki to my right bulge, it's practically unusable anymore and my right leg's partially damaged too, luckily the torpedo tubes doesn't blast but it certainly is totaled. Meanwhile my shot hits Shirayuki's antenna tearing it down and starting a fire on her engine. "Makigumo, now!" but before I knew it, a shot was fired from behind Shirayuki, it's Miyuki! So she was hiding behind her all along… the shot was meant to hit Makigumo whom had just get out from her hiding place as instructed, it did scratched her aft and caused panic to strike her.

"Gawa!?"

"Stay Focus Makigumo, change target to Miyuki! Range shouldn't be that far from Shirayuki!" but the panicked Makigumo can't really aims well that she hit my right leg instead with her salvo, it's a critical hit though.

"Hawawa!?" Makigumo looks panicked even more, her mouth is widely opened as she fixes her glass to make sure what had just happened.

"GO! GO! She's closing in on you now!" I say as I waved my hand quickly, signaling her to start moving forward. Luckily, she did engage her throttle and gets away from a salvo fired by Miyuki, I let a long sigh as I looked at Shirayuki, "S-senior!?" her face is all covered in black powder…

"Ahah, no worries, you got me with the last shot, I pretty much is totaled now…" she says as she smiled, though I barely could see that smile in between the smoke layers from her engine and her already "covered" face also the fact that we're far away separated by distance.

"Well, Makigumo rendered me useless too though… ahaha" I say as I tried to activate my left engine to no avail. So instead, I tried to turn my body to where Makigumo is…

There she is… ah there she is. It looks like senior Miyuki's still chasing her like a tiger on a deer cub.

"Gawawa" From afar I could hear her scream before she tries to shot Miyuki, Splash! It was a scratch, but on the other hand Makigumo whom had just slip from Miyuki's shot were hit directly by a torpedo on her leg, causes her to blast into the sky, "Bhawawaawa" landed face first on Miyuki's next torpedo… Bwashh… the sea water seems like lifted upside down from that last blast, it is, pretty dangerous…. and Miyuki did clap her hand in front of her head which is bent toward her chest.

"Miyuki!" Shirayuki said, almost at the same time I said, "Makigumo!" before I stand on one foot and tries to move toward where Makigumo 'crashed'

But not long after that, I can clearly sees Makigumo… she's pretty much soaked in blood and smokes from her engines… but she seems "OK" for a ship at least…

"H-hey sorry, I didn't know it could end up like that…" Miyuki now bow down her whole body toward Makigumo… but what we didn't expected was…

BLAST! Makigumo fired her main canon, which was left unscratched from the previous attacks, toward Miyuki's leg. Miyuki managed to flew above by reversing her engine, though Makigumo's shell did a scratch to her leg.

"Not y…" but before Miyuki even finished her words Makigumo pushed her right hip upward that her body does a quick 180 degrees rotates before Makigumo tighten her grip at Miyuki's feet causing all of Miyuki's chest and above part of the body were drowned at the sea, Miyuki tried to struggle but somehow…

A compass… it's the compass girl from before…. A node shift? But how? Suddenly Makigumo triggers a type 3 depth charge as she releases Miyuki…

"Makigumo what are you doing!?" I shouted, but what stares back at me is not the disciple I had this morning… I remember that eye… the right eye covered by the glass on Makigumo's face I saw right now, is the same eye burned with anger, hatred, and vengeance…it's the eyes of the Elite Abyssal Fleet…


	5. Shocking Circumstances

"Miyuki!" I can hear senior Shirayuki's shout as she tried to engage her damaged engine, but instead of gaining speed, I could clearly sees another blast on her smokestack ripping off her back with shrapnel from the smokestacks.

"Senior, stop! You're just hurting yourself… look!" I say as I point to the sky, it looks like the admirals had prepared for this and took of on a ground effect vehicle.

Suddenly…everything fades out into white...

The next thing I know I was at the infirmary's bed.

"*gasp… wh- infirmary?" Akashi who realized the fact that I've gain my conscious back suddenly left her desk and head straight to the white bed I was on. Right after she's beside me, she quickly beams me with a medical apparatus she got from the base which quickly examined my condition.

"I see… phew…" Akashi releases a relieved sigh when she saw the result she got on the apparatus, "glad you really are ok Inazuma."

"He-hey! Look who's finally awake." It's senior Miyuki, she's on a right on my left.

"S-senior! You're ok?"

"heh! This Miyuki won't sink that easily!"

"You actually 'sunk' just now though." Senior Shirayuki said, her bed is right across Miyuki's, the two chuckles afterward.

"Glad you two are ok seniors, but… something bothered me… Makigumo's eyes… did you girls see it?"

The atmosphere on the infirmary was pretty bad already but I guess I've just made it worse with my question. It took about a minute of silence before Shirayuki answered my question.

"I think you might also have saw that kind of eyes right?" I nodded to Shirayuki's answer, or… question?

"I might have not saw her eyes in the battle," Akashi added "but after examining her, she actually had a Y particle inside her, though the resonance were pretty weak compared to what an abyssal ship usually has."

"I think we'll know about it soon… " Shirayuki said as she looks on a clock which is on the upper side of the wall behind me and Miyuki, from a glass located right on Shirayuki's left, I can clearly see that it's 7 o' Clock and the moon on infirmary's window, which is on the further left of my bed tells me that it's night already.

Suddenly the infirmary's door opened, revealing senior Fubuki who quickly stormed the room.

"I-inazuma…" Fubuki said as she get close to me, "I'm sorry, I can't really talk much today, but it's nice to meet you again…" she patted my head before she glanced toward Miyuki, "Girls, we're heading home right now."

"Ehh…" Miyuki said, "Can't we…"

"We got no time." Fubuki said, shortly Miyuki and Shirayuki woke from their bed like nothing happened to them and starts to walk toward me.

"I'll see you soon then I guess.." Miyuki said to me before she forced a smile on her face.

"please take a good care." Shirayuki said before she bowed to me.

"We'll be taking our leave, thanks Akashi." Fubuki said before she quickly leave the room followed by the two other.

"Well, something must've happened…." Akashi said.

"You didn't hear anything from admiral?" I asked, Akashi replied with a shook of her head.

"Not up to now though, I believe it has little to do with us…"

"They looks like in a hurry though…" at that time, an announcement bell was rang.

"Mic Check… Mic Check.. ah, wh, don't turn the intercom yet… anghh Hiei.. A-ah, uh, the admiral requests for all available ships to gather at the meeting room. At this instance."  
"Well, looks like you're going then, can you stand?" I tried to move my feet and managed to stand on it.

"Barely, but I guess I'm fine."

"Well then, I'll be waiting here with Makigumo, tell me the details later ok?" I nodded to that question before I set my journey to the meeting room.


	6. Memories of Past

Sorry for the latest episode which ends up pretty short ^^;; as a compensation, I'll release this one faster than the usual, also, you might wanted to see the side story here: s/10936677/1/Hatsuyuki-Ganbareru-Hatsuyuki-Will-Do-Her-Best

hope you guys will come to like it :D  
O yea, my disclaimer is absent from the beginning... my bad...

thanks for reading this far!

"As you might've guessed we've found another seed." Admiral Shirogane says. He's currently leading an emergency meeting with his ships.

The room's pitch dark with the projector's light as its only lighting. Everyone's putting their serious face, except for Hiei who seems to be sleeping on the seat to the back of the room.

"Some of you might have seen the potential of this kid on the joint practice with admiral Hayabusa's squadron." Shirogane added, "but of course that would also means someone needs to take a good care of the girl in case things goes wrong just like earlier. That's where Batsubyou and Era would do their job." Batsubyou the cat and Era the girl in brown twin-pigtailed hair stands from their seats, "As you've known." This two had already been on service to maintain the rift created by the compass girl to ensure your safety during every mission. Now that their focus will eventually be split up, you might want to be at an extreme cautious on your mission this day onward." Batsubyou and Era sits right after a nod from admiral Shirogane at the end of his sentence.

"As for now we still have no green-light to attack this seed. But the HQ wanted to get rid of this one as soon as possible. Why? Because of this." Suddenly the layer behind him changes into a view of the ocean… it then moves pretty fast toward an object… it's a seed.

As usual, the sea surrounds it were covered in deep black gooey materials. It's as if the seed itself was an active volcano. Nearing the middle of the gooey things, Everything looks "normal" as a seed area with a towering shape that sprouts out in the middle, which is the seed. But as the view gets zoomed… everyone gasped.

"Weren't those…" I can hear Yuubari's voice, but she didn't completes her sentence because we've all knew what that is… about five abyssal ships are on the screen. They are of the Re class battleship whom were guarding the seed. The seed itself kind of looks like a huge coffee bean with darker color and strange thread enclosing it which squiggles around on a tentacle like movement.

"We also got report that these Re-Classes is attacking Hayabusa's Naval base as we speak." Everyone gasps at the word Commander spoken "and that's why we created this Makigumo."

"But why destroyer type?" Yuubari asked, "I meant no offence though, but those Re-class could stop a 46 cm with their one palm…"

"Our real goal is of course not the Re Class. As you knew, once a seed got destroyed, the surrounding abyssal fleet will lose their fighting capability. With the destruction of a seed that big, I'm pretty sure those Re Class would have little to do in the future."

"So you wanted a destroyer to actually destroy a seed?" Yuubari keeps pushing the admiral for more info about the mission, the rest of us could only watches…

"Actually, that's what the HQ wanted, but I do have a strategy to come with it."

"And that is…"

"This…" the admiral once again changes the projector so that it shows a room full of scientist, at the center of the room was a glass container with a strange bullet covered in what looks like tendons… "We are generating a special small caliber shell to destroy the seeds."

"And what about the Re Class? You don't actually expect them to stand down seeing their seeds being destroyed now, did you?"

"Of course not. I've counted them too. That's why we're not doing this on a single small squadron, we'll propose the Seed Raid Operation to the HQ." The projector once again changes what it projects, now what appears on the projector is the map of the previously seen seeds. "First of all the We'll gather our elite Battleships and Carrier division from across the pacific, and we'll send waves and waves of our attack toward this Re-Classes. As usual, abyssal ships that lurks nearby their seeds will be easily reconstructed almost instantly unless they were sunk for certain number of times. The main fleet with the help of the support fleet will try to at least take the Re classes' attention while the secondary fleet will sneak around and deliver the shells to the seeds. I'll perfect the plan while we wait the order to strike."

" I See…" Yuubari starts to calm down.

"To be honest though, the HQ did propose a…" Shirogane makes a quotation mark with his hands, "more 'effective' way to destroy it though…"

"Don't say…" I could only find one way a destroyer could easily destroy a seed…

"Yes, Inazuma… you and the rest of this fleet might have known this strategy that had long since abandoned; detonating a destroyer inside the seed. But of course we should try to avoid that being a necessity."The room suddenly filled with everyone's murmur, "But of course."Commander's word, which was stressed at the end, managed to keep the room silent again, "I'll try my best not to make it a necessary. So I hope you girls would understand the situation."

The room is then filled with despair and silence "Well that is all for now, you're all dismissed." Commander finished the meeting and it doesn't took a minute before the meeting room almost emptied. Only the admiral, Kirishima, Hiei and I were left behind. Kirishima was busy turning off all electronic appliances while Hiei is busy tending her dream.

"So… commander…" suddenly Shirogane patted my head without saying a word, I knew what this means… he had done this several times before, "Commander…"

An awkward silence ensue, I kind of forgot what I was about to say and Shirogane was just standing still like a head patting statue…

"Admiral, the room has been cleaned up I suppose we'd better…" Kirishima had just carried Hiei on her back when she said that, but she ended her line after seeing what happened, she then decided to take back her words and get her sister to the barrack.

It took about a minute before Shirogane took his conscious back, "Thanks, and sorry, that is the best deal I could ask to the HQ."

"I-it's ok Commander, it's not like you're doing it on purpose or anything. I also know how bad it will be to let those five Re-Class around this water for too long…"

"You must be tired after this long day; please get a rest, this week will be quite a long week for us." Shirogane releases his patting hand off me before he sink his hat further down his head and leaves me in the meeting room alone.

I've got to go through this again huh…

"Leave this one to me, you go rescue the Cruisers."

"B-but… that's suicide!"

"If we didn't do this now, it'll be the end of what we've been protecting all along Inazuma."

"I… I was the one whom were supposed to be detonated… as a lady, I shall… *cough*cough"

"Akatsuki… Big sis, I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but if you're the one to go, at least in that condition, I doubt you could even touch that seed."

"Ikazuchi…

Ah.. I… think I need some rest…

I decided to get through the meeting room's automatic door and used my finger scan to lock it up. I sighed to myself…

"Hey…"

That voice… "B-big sis?" when I turn myself around, Akatsuki greets me with a smile, she held her hat with her right hand before she hugged me, "B-big sis…" Akatsuki decided to leave our hug on a silence… somehow this situation causes my tear to flood over.

"Just let it out Inazuma…" she said as she patted my shoulder… at that word, my eyes were like a dam being destroyed by a bomb… it took me several seconds before I dried out my eyes.

"I… I don't know if I could do this again…"

"Hey, you've grown stronger than before now… I believe you could do this. The Commander trusted you from the beginning right? That means he knew you could do this."

"But, I… can't really stand to see my comrade being used like that anymore."

"Commander told us that he'd think up a better plan now didn't he? Let's just trust his word for now, shouldn't we?" I nodded to that question and Akatsuki releases her hug.

"Thanks… big sis…"

"N-nah, I'm just doing what a fine lady would do to cheer her friend that's all." She says as she blushes and smiled proud, but then she released a sigh and held down her cap, "After all, I was at fault back then… if I hadn't…" to that word, I shook my head as fast as I could.

"No, no one's at fault for that… Ikazuchi… she was just protecting us all that's what happened…" I say as I hold the hairpin on my collar "or at least that is what I thought I heard over the radio that day…"

"Inazuma…"

"Привет, товарищ! (Privet, Tovarishc!)" that greetings and voice, "How could you not invite me in this gathering, ужасно (uzhasno)." It's Hibi… Верный, Verniy, though she called us terrible, she actually proceed to cuddles the three of us without further words.

"Verniy…" I say.

"Want to call it a day for now?" Verniy says after she finished with her cuddling.

"Ah, I got to go to see the new recruit first." I say as I bowed to my sister ships and hurry to the infirmary

"Hey who give you the permission to go alone!" suddenly a hand held my shoulder, it's Akatsuki's right hand.

"Desdiv 6 shall go together!" Verniy added

"A… unm" I nodded at that.

"хорошо!"(harasho)

Though at that night… Makigumo did not wake up… the three of us decided to sleep there but only Akashi and the sun greets us the next morning.


	7. Past-Future

So... yea here you go, the update for the main story~ I do hope you've been reading the side story so far since I almost forgot to update the main story .-.;;;;  
Also, I can't really finish this one, but I'll try to finish the second part soon '-';;

hope you enjoy it!

* * *

"Unghhh…."

"Makigumo!" I was so glad to see the pink girl is safe and sound. Automatically, I jumped and hugged her, "You are actually awakes!"

"Aaa-hhh… I-instructor… yes… I woke up since last night. T-that said, is… it ok if I ask about yesterday?"

"You… don't remember?" I release my hug as I stare deep to her eyes, Makigumo slowly shook her head in response.

"I see… I'll answer that later on… in the mean time, admiral said we'll have a free time… we were about to leave by noon so I'm glad you're awoken at the right time. Want to go to the main island?"

"Main island?"

Our naval base was located at an artificial mass consisting of several floating docks; this naval base was created after the main naval base was stuffed with newly awarded admirals. Yea, since the adoption of Ship Girls system, low-rank military personnel rarely had a job to do, most nations decided to award some of their low-ranked officer some opportunity to raise their own naval base as an admiral, while some other did… yea retire some of their low ranked honorably. This awarding somehow makes our number pretty much even with the abyssal side, but of course there are some other downside to it… well, not all of the admirals actually is "the right man" but well… I think I should be thankful my admiral was an admiral from before that event.

"S-so, who is this 'we' you were talking just now instructor?" Makigumo says as she threaded the infirmary's hall together with me.

You'll see.."

"Ah, you're going already, Makigumo?" I can hear Akashi's voice from our left, she's sitting on a white chair and seems to be writing something on a sheet of paper right above the wooden table in front of her.

"Un.." Makigumo nods, "I think I'll be fine."

"Hmnn…Ok then, Inazuma, she might have started to gain conscious from yesterday as I said, but, please take a good care of her ok?" Mamiya stopped her writing and glanced on me, I released a "yes" with a strict nod and a raise of a thumb and that is enough to draw a smile on her face.

"E-eh, aren't we going to take a day off?" Makigumo seems surprised

"W-ell, let's just hope it is a total day off…" I say, Makigumo looks thinking about it for a while, her forehead wrinkles as she pinches her chin, but she forgot about it after we broke through the mess' outer door.

"How long…"she covers her eyes with her hand not to get blinded by the sun, "instructor, how long did I slept again?"

"A whole week." My answer shocked the pink girl, "Akashi's diagnose doesn't proof anything lethal though… perhaps you're just exhausted after being trampled by senior Miyuki's attack…"

"I see.. Whuh!?" Makigumo's eyes bloated, she seems shocked and not believing what I had just said, "But I thought damages from other ship girls should be easy to repair?"

"You… didn't remember what happened?" Makigumo shook her head slowly as she stopped her steps, "Hmnnn… I'll… explain while we're on the way…" I say as I patted her shoulder.

"Hmnn…" Makigumo hums, she seems dissatisfied with my answer but she decided not to express it through words and starts to continue her stroll.

"Boss!" suddenly, a voice could be heard from the horizon. I can see two destroyers run from the pier toward us. They were Nagatsuki and Shiranui, Nagatsuki is the one who yelled first.

"Leader!" Shiranui's voice could be heard not long after.

"Boss we've been waiting!" Nagatsuki says as soon as she's close enough to me, her green hair is waving to the pretty strong gale of the harbor, but her energetic smile and sharp eyes didn't even bugged by it.

"The preparations' ready, the tanker ship is scheduled to arrive any minutes by now." Shiranui's short pink hair was right above the serious looking almost emotionless face of her.

"Glad to hear that then." I say as I smiled to both of them.

"So this is the new recruit huh?" nagatsuki puts her right hand on her hip as she pinches her chin using her left hand "Hmnn… you don't look too shabby I guess."

"Yes I'll agree with you for this one." Shiranui replied, I could hear a gulp right beside me before I can feel my hand being wrapped by makigumo's.

"Come on you two... let's not frighten Makigumo here." I say.

"Pardon me leader…" Shiranui does a formal ojigi which made her body bowed down 90 degrees toward me.

"Well, I guess I overreacted." Nagatsuki offered a hand to Makigumo, she stroke a straight line on her face with her mouth which turns into a smile right was scarred at first, "come on, it's not like I'd bite or something." Makigumo slowly received her hand, but Nagatsuki took it and shook her hand right away, "The name's Nagatsuki, and this cold looking one's Shiranui. We've heard a lot about you from your instructor there, nice to meet you."

"N-nice to meet you too…" makigumo replied.

"Ah, the tanker's coming…"right after Shiranui said that, I could see a huge coning tower pops out from the water, slowly it reveals a huge submarine with sophisticated engine on its tail.

"Whoa…." Was the word that came out from Makigumo.

"Ok, let's get going everyone." I lead the other three destroyers toward the submarine with that word. Makigumo followed me without any word, her hands still wraps mine.

"Roger." Shiranui replied shortly before she followed my tail.

"Roger that, boss." Nagatsuki followed right beside Shiranui.

And with that, the four of us heads toward the submarine. The submarine crew welcome us with salutes as we carefully steps aboard the ship. We raised our salute toward the flag, which is right behind the coning tower before moving toward the upper deck of the ship which resembles the real Shioi, or the Sentoku class (I-400 type). It is big enough to fit three triple mounting 25mm and the conning tower. There, the skipper greets us with his salute and brought us to the meeting room inside the submarine.

It appears that the ship is carrying several abyssal cores which are going to be extracted to create more ship girls at the HQ together with some fuel supplies. Our mission is pretty clear and straight forward actually, defend the ship, and return home. But there's one detail of the mission that we hide from Makigumo.

After the mission was briefing done, we stayed on our post, the ship's deck. The submarine was not submerged to minimize fuel consumption. As a defensive measure though, they had launched several unmanned drones to scan the area. I sit on the magnetic rail used to launch aircraft and drones, while Makigumo and Nagatsuki rest themselves on a fence at the edge of the deck, Shiranui thinks the deck is good enough place to do maintenance to one of her cannon.

"Hmnn.. looks like there's nothing going to happens here…" Makigumo sighed as she lay her head on her hands which is resting on the transport ship's metal fence. The sea's wind blew her pink hair while her left foot is knocking the ship's deck using her toes as if counting for something.

"Well we still need to be very careful. The enemy might come when we least expected them." I say.

"Yes, Inazuma is correct. We must not let our guard down even a single second." Shiranui says as she finished her weaponry maintenance and check on her weapon for the third time in this mission.

"Your definition of not letting guard down is above everyone else here though…" Nagatsuki says before releasing a sigh, angered Shiranui suddenly points her gun, the one which she had been giving maintenance just now, with her right hand right at Nagatsuki who quickly tapped the 12.7's barrel away from her using her right hand and grabbed Shiranui's right hand with her left and pushes Shiranui's hand upward on the elbow before summoning her 12 cm gun. But, before Nagatsuki's right hand could get the weapon, Shiranui rotates her torpedoes at her, though Nagatsuki managed to kick the torpedo turret, forcing not to rotate toward its firing angle.

"Bam." Shiranui says coldly as she grabbed Nagatsuki's right hand with her left, a machinery sound could be heard as Shiranui's other turret aims at Nagatsuki's head, "I'd expect that skirt of yours does not has metal plating now, does it?"

"Ha!" Nagatsuki shout proudly, but then she grumbles… "Well, I lost…" Nagatsuki says as she lets Shiranui's hand off her grip.

"If I were an abyssal, you'd be sunk by now."

"Well if an enemy appears like that, you'll be ready to face it didn't you." By that word Shiranui blushed angrily and decided to back away. Makigumo was speechless seeing the scene, her eyes were bloated and her mouth is opened.

"Come on you two, you're scaring Makigumo here." My words broke the tense between the two destroyers.

"A-ah leader, yes… indeed that quarrel was not necessary, if only someone didn't stat it." Shiranui say before giving Nagatsuki her glare.

"What? Well, ok, that might be true, but I bet what leader means is the gun pointing part." Nagatsuki grins that triggered Shiranui's angry slanted eyes face.

"Both of you got your own points, but there's no reason to get too relaxed neither being too tensed." I tried to be the middle of the two, though this had happened several times before, I do think it won't be a good example for Makigumo, "being too tensed will make your times with your comrade less interactive, we never knew when we'll have to say goodbye and it'll be a waste if you didn't managed to cherish your moment together. Meanwhile, being too relaxed on a battlefield is also a no-no, since you don't want to get caught off guard now, right?"

Both Shiranui and Nagatsuki humns as they usually do, but then their glance changes to Makigumo, "What do you think!?" both of them said in sync.

"E-eh… I think instructor's right." Makigumo said, that word causes both Shiranui and Nagatsuki fell into the deck's floor and whine disappointedly.

"You're no fun." Nagatsuki said.

"What she said." Shiranui followed. The two then leave the puzzled destroyer.

"E-eehehh…"

"You're too tensed Makigumo…" I say as I pat the pink haired girl's shoulder.

"B-but…"

"They just need some times alone, they should snap back any time soon."

"I see…" a pretty long silence ensue the situation. Shiranui continues to do the fourth maintenance of her weaponry. Nagatsuki is standing at the stern of the deck, looking for where we're going, while Makigumo wanders around the ship before she finally stops beside me.

"Instructor…." She said, "if it's ok with you, can I ask something?"

"Ah, sure, what is it?"

"How was your first day on this harbor?" at that question I could only hum since most of the girl in the base had this talk already except Makigumo whom had just got here.

"Ok then, let me tell you a bit story of my first day." To that word, I can feel both Nagatsuki and Shiranui move a bit closer toward me and Makugumo, but I think I'll just ignore that.

My ship sets sail to our base on a certain night... It was a breezy night with skin freezing wind blowing from the north. Most of Admirals' ships were scattered throughout the UF after the first raid. I could only meet my fellow Akatsuki class every bon festival or any other festival that the HQ held. But that moment is where we'll finally reunited... that day is when Admiral return.

"wait, instructor, by return... " Makigumo cut the story with her question, her face is as puzzled as her mind might be with her mouth slightly opened and her eyes slanted on a different angle.

"Our admiral was hospitalized, I guess we could talk about it instead?" somehow I could feel that Nagatsuki and Shiranui are signing Makigumo not to change the story.

"A-a-ah I... Guess we'd better continue your story if you don't mind instructor..." I released a sigh and when I look behind, Nagatsuki had moved herself there, pretending to look at the sky. While Shiranui is pretending to be busy with her canon.

"Well then... "

I was actually scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning... But a local fisherman claimed that one of his friends' ships doesn't return from sailing weeks ago. He claimed that his radio received a signal which he claims to air at the same wavelength the two of them used as their secret channel. The coast guard would of course not believed the story as it is too risky to perform a night search especially since the signal came from the sea invested with abyssal patrol routes. Long story short, I decided to help them.

I decided to stay on the bridge along with the fisherman who begged me to come with them. He appears to be the helm of the ship.

"Lil girl, you're one of those who fought the alien ships right?" said the Helm.

"Yes, I was with the United fleet," I said as I let him see my cape with the Uf logo printed on it, "today I was assigned back on JSDF."

"Must've been hard for a lass at your age to fight for the world huh..."

"Well, indeed it could be hard at times..."

"If there's any admiral who do perverted things to you just call me ok? I'll punch that brat in the face."

"A-Ahah, thanks..." suddenly, the radio of the ship is receiving a signal which starts with static but then becomes clear. Everyone on the bridge was anxious, hoping that it is the broadcast they were waiting for. But the voice that could be heard later proofs otherwise.

"This is JSDF naval base to unidentified ship, you are entering a war zone, please head back where you are..."

"Hey, lil girl, you're going to be stationed on that floating dock right? Looks like your future home is in trouble." the helm said as he waves his hand back and forth, telling me to come and look at our base which pretty much is engulfed in flames.

"Sir, you'd better turn away right now..." I suggest.

"I'm not going to back down here lil girl, you know it right?"

"Then please follow me, I'll contact you through your current radio frequency for further details ok?"

"Roger that captain" the helm imitates a military salute before I launched myself off the boat into the ocean.

"Destroyer inazuma, reporting for duty."

"Inazuma?" over the radio was lieutenant Mado the radio officer of the base. "But I thought... "

"Is this Inazuma?" Admiral Shirogane's voice took over.

"Yes sir, I'm under your command." I quickly replied.

"Ok then, listen carefully, we've got three destroyers in the vicinity. One of which is pretty close to your location. We will try to distract the other two so just concentrate on getting that one first, is that clear enough?"

"Roger that commander." and so, I start to accelerate my engine toward the location updated by the admiral.

After a while, I can finally see the empty dock that was behind the battle zone, small damages made by stray ammo could be seen here and there but the dock seems like a good place to hide.

"Mr. Fisherman! Set anchor nearby the dock, I'll try not to let them touches even an inches of your ship."

"Ahaha, very well lil girl." the helm said before he pulled his rudder 35 degrees right.

After making sure the fisherman is safe, I continue my sail to the designated point... and there it is. A single ha class is shooting the construction site with an 8 inch turret inside its mouth. Before he could even realized it, my 12.7 critically hits its head and puffed up greenish smoke to the sky before it listed head first to the sea. Not far from there I could see the base's defense turrets are glaring, trying to hit one of the two other destroyers which easily escaped those Bullet rain by a zigzag course.

The Ta and Ha class decided to return fire and hit two land batteries which are shooting at them. Right when I finally, approximately, reached my gun's effective range, the two abyssal destroyers spotted me and change their target. Quickly I took an aim at the Ta class which started to sails onto me. Bam! With a glaring sound, my turret's barrels spitted off two 12.7 shells, but the Ta class managed to get out only with a scratch damage. Quite soon after, I could hear a shot from my left, the bullet from the Ha class nearly hits me but instead it only splashes me with the sea's water. Soon, the two are within my torpedo range, they quickly spreads a total of six torpedoes, leaving only small gap for me to escape. I charged through the torpedoes hitting one of it using a machine gun to create a wider gap toward the Ha class. Quickly I returned their torpedo salvo with another salvo of two torpedoes at the escaping ha... Bwash, at almost point blank range, the ha class has no time to escape and sunk after split into two.

That leaves the Ta class alone. But it charges toward me instead of running away. It fires off its canon twice before it launches three torpedoes. The first bullet hit my side creating a blast near my engine. I managed to evade its torpedoes and head straight toward the destroyer. In a quick succession I fired my canon and launch all of my torpedoes. It manages to evade my canon but my torpedoes hit the destroyer hard and soon I could see a blast on the destroyer's belly and smokes starts pouring up from its mouth...

Seeing that it didn't actually sink yet, I sailed close enough to it...

"Ah you're going to do a Core Extraction process, am I correct?"

"That's the standard procedure yes, IF we see the core of the abyssal. But that's not the case here.."

"then..?"

It was something I've been trying to prove... That these abyssals actually could and is trying to communicate... that is when suddenly, my radio picked up a signal from the destroyer...

"it was our song..." the helm said, "that was our song on the radio wave..."

"Does that means..." quickly I dip my hand to the remains of the destroyer. I then dig through the gooey abomination and what I found was a head of a man, right when I tried to find a pulse on his neck, I can touch a weakening beat. I tried to pull the head off the vessel, but then I realized that the head has been attached to that abyssal ships body.

"T-that... Sounds pretty disturbing actually... " Makigumo said staggeringly.

"Whoa, no cutting on that part!" Nagatsuki said.

"There's still a continuation to the story." Shiranui added.

"There… was?" Makigumo said, her face is signing a disbelieving toward the word she heard.

"There actually is..."

* * *

aaannnd cut... ok... I hope I can finish the second part soon... so yea, see you guys soon on the part two '-'/ hope you don't mind me cutting here... '-';;


	8. Ignition!

So yea... I'm late again sheesh ;-; my bad really I won't even mind if you're angry since yea it's twice in a row now...

my... thesis, or at least, thankfully, it was one part of it, got rejected and I have to start again from scratch it really took me pretty down to the bottom... I'm trying my best not to let it intervene with this series but eventually my thesis took my first priority and I could only continue writing this on my "work-made-into-leisure" time. Miraculously I could still somehow finishes this before my actual thesis was done.. so I was like ok, I'll just finish this one chapter and apologies yet again to my reader before continuing with my thesis... that said, that part of my thesis is now 25% complete and since I've read most of the books my lecturer told me to for the rest of the part I do kind of have a positive thinking that the rest should be a smooth writing though again, I'd like not to make an impossible promise as I did previously... so I do hope you'd understand but I'll have to postpone this two series for a while. At least until that part of my thesis was accepted so that my parents could stop nagging me about my thesis process and hopefully by that time I could concentrate to at least finishing the side story (which is supposed to end in about 2 or 3 more chapter) while continuing this one (which.. still is far from ending I'd say...)

so yea that was a long Gibberish huh, that said, hope you can still enjoy the story ;-;

* * *

"Ok then, shall we continue?" I ask, Makigumo nods as an answer and so, I continue the story...

* * *

The cruiser opened fire beginning the attack while the destroyers fans out to surround me. Luckily enough its attack was far from hitting me.

"Admiral, ignite me." I say.

* * *

"Ignite?" Makigumo asked.

"Ah, yes, you didn't know about it…" I just realized that this Makigumo have just got assigned…

"You'll know what it was while hearing the rest of the story." Shiranui says.

"O-ok then…"

* * *

The admiral didn't respond to my request at first, but then a radio came in, "Negative Inazuma, I'm not going to do that again, you know it right."

"But commander, we… don't have.." another shell comes at me nearly grazed my aft, "ghk…"

"Inazuma! Tsk…. Ok, hang on a second, I'll ready the ignition process." Finally, the admiral agreed to ignite me. At that time nothing could be recognized from where I stand, but I'm pretty sure admiral would be activating his Ground Effect Vehicle (GEV).

Anyway, the abyssal destroyers start firing their cannons as they get into their main cannon's range on me. Several of their shells managed to graze me left and right, but none did any noticeable damage.

Quickly, I dodged the other shell that the cruiser spews as it get closer onto me. As I start to get closer toward the cruiser, several destroyers welcomed me with their 8 inch shells which I easily dodged. I managed to get close toward the cruiser, but the other destroyers herd me away from it with their guns blazing.

I sail myself in a zigzag to avoid salvos from the destroyers as I return some of it. Neither side managed to do noticeable damage, but if anything, the abyssal managed to deplete my fuel faster. The sun has yet risen from its slumber while the fog is getting thicker to the point it completely covers me. To make things worse, the abyssals are giving no time for me to rest.

After several hours of hit and runs, I managed to moderately damages one Ha class out of the other two destroyers. The Ha class quickly retreat itself to the rear of their formation. Another destroyer came and took the retreating Ha class' position. I was about to shoot it when I realize that my ammo is nearing to being depleted. So I evaded his attack as I keep my distance from it. But then another problem pops up, my fuel is getting empty and I'll have to continue with my cruising speed. But of course, it's not enough to keep me away from the destroyer... Clank! One of its shell ricochet at my smokestack before smashing the sea. I'd consider myself lucky enough since we're pretty close by the time the abyssal destroyer shoot its cannon. Seeing that admiral is still nowhere to be found, I decided to shoot the destroyer with what left on my cannon's magazines. clank! My shell grazed the abyssal destroyer's teeth but it didn't do much. The abyssal destroyer shoot its 8 inch toward me blasting my engine room and send me flying for a second.

I can't really feel my back, but it's really hot back there. Right when the abyssal was about to load another round, another shell came from my left, clank! I know what shell this one is. It stuck on my hull before it sprinkles waters on me. The water feels like the ones you'd find inside the repair bucket. At the same time, the shell injected several fairies onto my hull which replenish all of my weaponry ammunition both of which occur only on several seconds. So, once the abyssal destroyer managed to load its cannon and shot it, I have already gone from where it was aiming at. Managing to outrun the other destroyers, I charged toward the unsuspecting cruiser while readying my 12.7 cm.

The cruiser has already got the wrecked destroyer by the time I managed to get it inside my main cannon's range. It's about to get out of the scene when its engine room was set ablaze by my 12.7 cm. It screeches in pain as fire scorches its body.

The destroyers behind me start to fire its cannons. Bwash! Rain of shells poured around me as water splashes all over me, I managed to slip through all of it with only being wetter. I managed to get close enough toward the cruiser without taking any damages. Quickly I snatched the chain that holds my anchor and rotating it like a cowgirl I was. The rotation starts pretty slow but it got faster as it starts to ring a deadly swosh every time it made a circle. The cruiser slowly rotating its body to let its cannon points me, but before it happened, I had already threw my anchor, releasing the momentum weapon toward the cruiser's stomach. It stuck pretty deep into it. The cruiser screams in pain as it try to shove the anchor out of its stomach. I shoot my cannons whose shells managed to splinter the cruiser's main cannon. The cruiser shot its secondary cannons to rain me with "small" shells, but none of which actually made any noticeable damage. Using the stuck anchor, I made a circle around the cruiser. I managed to land two direct hits onto the cruiser's back before it could align me with its canon's sight. Blast! As the sound of the cruiser's cannon glare, I've already start closing further into the cruiser while loading another shell onto my cannon's chamber. Clack! Bwash! The sound of the shell on my cannon, which signs that it's ready to shoot, is in harmony with the rain of shell that the cruiser gave me. Blast! My cannon roars as its shells flew through the cruiser's "head" which pops out greenish gasses all over the place. I pluck out my anchor from the cruiser before I get into the damaged destroyer which sat right beside the cruiser.

Seeing their flagship sunk, the other destroyers start to flock me like a bug to a light. All three destroyers shoot its cannon simultaneously at me, one of which ricochets near my engine room, luckily with little to no effect. I replied their salvo with mine which hit the Ha class destroyer and immediately set it ablaze before slowly sink into the ocean. The other two destroyers continued their march toward me. Seeing that, I dashed myself toward them while readying my torpedoes. Bwash! More saltwater flew away as the abyssal destroyer's shells penetrate the ocean. I managed to slip past through the barrage unharmed and we soon reach our torpedoes' effective range. We exchanged torpedoes as another salvo of shells was fired by several abyssal destroyers. I bank right and left to avoid both of the abyssals' torpedoes and shells as I came closer toward them. Pwoofs! I released the rest of my torpedoes toward one of the Ro class destroyer that came onto me. It took most of the torpedo before splitting into two and then got eaten by the sea.

The last Ro class destroyer shoot its cannon onto me, its shell nearly hits me but sunk into the ocean instead. Seeing its attack failed, it tried to escape so I send him home with a whack on its head with my fist. After flinching and "lands" its face on the ocean's surface, it quickly ran into the horizon.

* * *

"Whoa!" Makigumo can't hold her excitement any longer, "So, basically, ignition works like a strength buff medicine for us ship girl or some sort?"

"Ahahaha!" Nagatsuki laughed, "You can say so."

"Then, why is it being banned?" Makigumo asked.

"The side effect is the problem." Shiranui answered, "Though it does restores us to our optimum performance and is considered one of the best method of prolonging a shipgirl's combat capability, especially after the usage of Compass Fairy Protection, it's later found that the ignition process negates any Compass Fairy Protection, so a shipgirl could sink in one hit from full health and each nodes could collapse right after their fuel drained out."

"In other words, most of the time it is a suicide mission once the ignition shell used." I adds.

"I see… ah, then how could you survive it?"

* * *

The only way to prevent the inevitable sinking of shipgirl whom was ignited, was to get her off the sea before her fuel depleted. The admiral managed to save me. That is after making assure that no enemy came after the damaged destroyer of course. He shot me with fulton recovery shell which took me to the air before his GEV took me. The same method was used to take the damaged destroyer. Several fairies quickly tend the destroyer and tried to separate the abyssal body from the fisherman's… that is to no avail…

* * *

"Awh… that's pretty much a downer for an ending…" Makigumo say.

"But thanks to that," Nagatsuki say, "we knew that these abyssals could also took humans as captive."

"We also learns a lot from that hostage." Shiranui add, "In fact, there are researches on ways to actually extract hostages from its abyssal body."

"And while the higher ups wouldn't trusts me on this," I further add, "I believe that they're also starts to learn to understand feel as though they were human."

"Hmnn... That's why you helped that destroyer on our first sailing training?"

"That's one of the reason, but you saw it yourself right? He actually thanks us for helping and it could've shot me but it didn't..."

"Wow... So this abyssals are more complex than we knew they were..."

"Not with that abyssal though I guess..." Nagatsuki pointed her index finger toward a closing in abyssal ships, "two Tsu class torpedo cruisers at three o clock."

"All units engage!" as I said that out loud, I called my weaponry out, followed by Makigumo and Nagatsuki. Shiranui had already equipped hers already so she jumped off the boat first and quickly head toward the two torpedo cruisers

"Boss, I believe Shiranui could try and flank the one on our right while I'll cover her..." Nagatsuki says, "You could take care of the other one, right?"

"Yea, I have my own plan for this one. Makigumo stay close to the tanker, see if there are any hostile submarine around" I say, we then quickly split up, Shiranui silently slip to the cruiser's right flank while Nagatsuki covering her by shooting her cannons one after another at the cruiser on my right. Meanwhile, I am closing in toward the cruiser ahead of me while firing my main canon. The cruiser tried to shoot me, but none of its shells even managed to scratch me. I quickly return the salvo and managed to scratches the cruiser. I then proceed to get into torpedo range within a minute. Right when we're close enough, we exchanges torpedoes. Neither of us accept any of the torpedoes though. Quickly, I sail myself closer to the cruiser and aim my canon to its head. Blast! With a single, almost point blank, shot, the cruiser releases green smoke from the hole on its head as it begins to sink. I could see Shiranui had already launched all of her torpedoes off from its tubes. Two of them were shot by the cruiser's machine guns while another two of them severing the cruiser by ripping it apart in half. Followed with greenish smoke puffing up from the crack, the cruiser slowly swallowed by the deep blue sea.

"Hwaaaa you girls are great seniors!" Makigumo's voice could be heard over the radio.

"Hehen that was nothing really. " Nagatsuki claimed.

"Now-now let's not get ahead of ourselves. " I tried to warn her but Nagatsuki just continued her proud laugh. I can see Shiranui is shaking her head left and right from afar.

After making ourselves assured that no other wave of enemy's inbound, we climbed our way back aboard the deck where Makigumo, who climbed up first, waits with her excited face.

"Hwaaaa... " Makigumo repeats herself.

"Now-now, I believe you'll get to our level quite soon if you practiced hard enough! " Nagatsuki claim as she patted Makigumo's head.

"I'll agree with her on that." Shiranui nodded as she put her hands on her hip.

Those words from the two destroyers managed to brought Makigumo's confidence back. With that, our journey continues for several more minutes before a land could be seen on the horizon.

"Land ahead! " said one of the ship's crew.

We managed to docksafely. The ship's crewmen guides them to the port's office with a lot of smiles and gratitudes. Makigumo is smiling widely toward the crewmen and so does Nagatsuki. I can only spot a slightly stretched smile on Shiranui's face as she waves toward the crewmen.

"Well, we'll be waiting here this afternoon." said one of crewmen before he raised his salute, we replied shortly before we headed toward the harbor's exit.

"Whoaa... Did seniors look at the sailors' faces? They seem so happy when we managed to escort them safely. "

"Well, the fact that we keep them alive…" Shiranui made a pause on her statement, "and the fact that we're girls compared to ordinary machinery could be the reason of their exaggerated happiness." she continued.

"A-aahah… B-but I'm glad to know that our actions could actually saves lives. I start to feel lucky for being born as a ship girl." Makigumo said.

"Ohoh, we tend to do that when we're not busy trying to clean the sea off of some Seeds." Nagatsuki says before she patted Makigumo's shoulder, "but of course you still have a long way to go before you could actually do something like that." she said.

"Anghh... Then... I wanted to train more to become a lot stronger like seniors!" Makigumo says.

"Well, that's The spirit!" Nagatsuki shouts.

"But I'm afraid you're going to need one training, hard enough to make you regret being a Shipgirl." suddenly a voice of a mature lady could be heard from our back... And indeed she was the trainer who could make anyone or perhaps anything regret being born as a Shipgirl.


End file.
